Let the official Oscar campaigning begin. Even though the race started long before today, with the nominations now revealed, the handshaking and butt kissing to Academy voters kicks into high gear. This is exactly the part Joaquin Phoenix criticized when he slammed the Oscars. Despite that dig, as predicted by him, Phoenix snagged an Oscar nod for his work in The Master. Can he parlay his “unique” campaigning to Oscar glory when the winners are announced on February 24, 2013 at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood?

Oscar host Seth Macfarlane and Emma Stone woke up extremely early today to read out the nominations for the 85th Academy Awards. Side note: Macfarlane is the first host to announce the nominations since Charlton Heston did double duty back in 1972. As widely predicted, Lincoln dominated with 12 nominations including Best Director, Best Film, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Supporting Actor. Coming in second was Life of Pi with 11 nods. Unlike Lincoln, Life of Pi didn’t score any acting nods and their haul came mostly from the creative categories. Check out all the nominations and my commentary including snubs in all the major awards below.

85th Academy Award Nominations

Best Picture

Amour

Argo

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Django Unchained

Les Miserables

Life of Pi

Lincoln

Silver Linings Playbook

Zero Dark Thirty

No real surprises here. The only noteworthy omission is Skyfall. Many had predicted hoped that the James Bond flick would score a nod on the franchise’s 50th anniversary. At least, 007 will get a tribute segment during the awards show. Not a bad consolation prize. Lincoln is the obvious frontrunner given that it has the most nominations, and the fact it has three acting nods and one for Spielberg. Zero Dark Thirty who many predicted would be a contender was snubbed in the directing category. It’s hard to win Best Picture when a Best Directing nomination is missing.

Best Actor

Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook

Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln

Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables

Joaquin Phoenix, The Master

Denzel Washington, Flight

With Joaquin Phoenix in, that meant someone was snubbed. The unlucky fellow was John Hawkes who’s been racking up awards and nods including a SAG for The Sessions. This is Daniel Day-Lewis’ race to lose. Better prepare that third Oscar acceptance speech. The potential upset could come from Hugh Jackman and Phoenix. Not surprisingly, a few Academy voters echo the same sentiment felt by Joaquin regarding overboard Oscar campaigning.

Best Actress

Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty

Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook

Emmanuelle Riva, Amour

Quvenzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Naomi Watts, The Impossible

If you were to compare this to the SAG nominations, Helen Mirren and Marion Cotillard were snubbed for their work in Hitchcock and Rag & Bone respectively. Cotillard is the bigger omission as many predicted she was a sure thing. On the flip side, experts felt either Riva or Wallis would take the fifth slot. Surprisingly, both earned nominations thereby setting records for youngest (Wallis) and oldest nominee (Riva) in Academy history. As a side note, Wallis who is 9-years-old now was only 6 when she filmed the movie. So glad that Watts was acknowledged for The Impossible. She was EVERYTHING in the flick. I’m secretly hoping she sneaks by Lawrence and Chastain who are the two frontrunners.

Best Supporting Actor

Alan Arkin, Argo

Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook

Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master

Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln

Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

Skyfall‘s Javier Bardem earned a SAG nomination but lost out on the Oscar nod to Christoph Waltz. Otherwise, this category was as expected. Tommy Lee Jones seems to be the frontrunner in the race, but I can see Hoffman pulling off a win. The Master earned three Oscar acting nods which shows that the Academy is enamored by the cast.

Best Supporting Actress

Amy Adams, The Master

Sally Field, Lincoln

Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables

Helen Hunt, The Sessions

Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook

Jacki Weaver!!! Now that’s a surprise. Her name hasn’t been tossed around in many of the Oscar precursors. Her nomination bodes well for Silver Linings Playbook’s chances for Best Picture. It’s the only film to have an acting nod in each category. Having such strong performances definitely improves the chances of the film winning the big prize. Even though Nicole Kidman nabbed a Golden Globes and SAG nod, the Aussie was shut out at the main event. This is a two-way race between Hathaway and Field with the edge going to the former. That being said, Sally is two-for-two when in comes to Oscars.

Best Director

Michael Haneke, Amour

Ang Lee, Life of Pi

David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook

Steven Spielberg, Lincoln

Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild

The directing category provided the most shocking results. Spielberg and Lee are the only two to also score DGA nods. Typically the Directors Guild gets it right with only one discrepancy. This year, they were way off. Among those snubbed include Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty), Ben Affleck (Argo), Tom Hooper (Les Miserables) and Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained). With those four out of the directing race, you can count out their respective films as non-factors for Best Film. This is a definitely between Spielberg and Lee.

Waltz as Best Supporting Actor is a bit ridiculous, he was a co-lead in the film. Leo DiCaprio or Samuel L. Jackson should have been in that spot. In fact, I’d give the Oscar to Jackson if I were a voter.

Brian

I was shocked that The Dark Knight Rises didn’t receive any nominations at all. I’d thought that it would at least nab a few nominations in the technical categories.

Jk

Silver Linings Playbook had 4 acting nods, not 3. One in each category.

Aaron

Where is Cloud Atlas??? At least best film editing or makeup.

EvChemical

I’m surprised for best director, those were big films they dropped in that category. I’m a little disappointed that QT didn’t get a nod for Django Unchained, but I’ll admit that its not his best film.

I hope Brave gets best Animated film :D

rogelio

why does Leo Dicaprio never get nominated for an Oscar? He is awesome…

Russell

I’m so glad Quvenzhane Wallis was nominated! She was impressive in an unusual film.

Rebel

I’ve seen Amour and Emmanuelle Riva needs to win this. Her performance is one of the best performances ever on screen. If the Oscar voters start to watch their screeners, I feel she can steal the trophy from the two frontrunners that you have mentioned. And at her age, this might be the only chance to reward her for her entire career (even though, they probably do not know about her at all. But hey, Marion Cotillard did win several years ago).

maximreed

Marion Cotillard not nominated for Rust & Bone is ridiculous! She deserved the nomination if not even the award! Though Riva is a great contender as well. As for Naomi Watts, she was perfect in The Impossible, so glad she is nominated as well. That is great also for Wallis.
The two front runners? Well I think Chastain has it in the bag. :)